Mist-On Tan

Infringers Beware:
New Mystic/Mist-On License Agreement
4-21-03

Laughlin Products (LPI, Grapevine TX),
owner of the original automated-spray-tan
patents, has entered into a new license
agreement with Mystic Tan (Dallas TX).

This new agreement grants Mystic the
non-exclusive right to market their Mystic Tan booths to all entities in all countries except the US, UK and Ireland. Previous agreements limited Mystic to marketing their booths to the UV-bed tanning salons. The UV-bed tanning salon limitation still applies in the US, UK and Ireland. This agreement became effective April 15, 2003.

LPI also licenses its patented technology to Mist-On Systems (MSI, Grapevine TX) which markets its booth under the trade name Dr. Laughlin's Mist-On Tan. MSI offers its booth to all markets, although the majority of its sales are to stand-alone Mist-On Tan salons. There are now over 100 such salons in the US, and several in Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland and Ireland.

According to LPI, the decision to expand Mystic's rights in foreign markets was part of its overall marketing and patent-defense strategy. Low-priced automated-sunless-tanning booths are popping up in several foreign markets where the LPI patent applications are still under review. The significantly lower price of the Mystic Tan unit compared to the Mist-On Tan unit makes Mystic better able to directly compete with these new upstarts.

Another major element of this new agreement was the creation of a Mystic-financed patent-defense fund. This fund, termed "Dr. Laughlin's War Chest", will be used to continue and expand the domestic patent litigation activity now underway against alleged infringers of the LPI patents in the US. Current litigation is underway against ETS, manufacturer of the Sunless Express Spray Spa, Hollywood Tans, manufacturer of Instant Tan, Heartland, distributor of Sun Spritz, and numerous salon owners and distributors of these three groups. Dr. Laughlin's new War Chest will allow LPI to expand the scope of it's U.S. patent infringement litigation to include other alleged domestic infringers.

To facilitate the consumer's ability to distinguish between non-infringing and alleged infringing devices, Mist-On Tan and Mystic Tan will both prominently display an emblem with the phrase "Technology by Dr. Laughlin". Consumers are advised to look for this emblem when shopping for an automated-sunless-tanning unit.

Both Mist-On Tan and Mystic Tan booths were introduced in late 1999. Since that time, over 1,000 Mystic and Mist-On booths have been placed worldwide. Each day, an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 tanners get a golden-brown tan using this innovative new technology.